Can We Really Blame Trunk or Treat Events For Ruining Halloween in Idaho

If you took kids out on Halloween to go trick-or-treating or you bought bags of candy to give to the little demons who came to your house this year, you might have been disappointed.

There have been complaints on both sides that not enough houses were giving out candy and that not enough kids came to the houses that were. And most of the blame has been placed on trunk-or-treat events.

Have Trunk-or-Treat Events Killed Halloween

There has been an obvious change in how Halloween is celebrated in Idaho. Over the last few years it has seemed like certain parts of town or specific streets were the go-to place for candy and everyone skipped the rest of the city. We noticed that this year the normally popular streets near our house were significantly less active.

Even driving around town to find the houses listed on Facebook that were giving out full sized candy bars or hot dogs (yeah, that’s a thing now and it’s awesome) it felt like there were less kids out. Also worth noting, and maybe this is because Halloween was on a weekday, people were running out of candy by 9PM and most lights were out soon after that. That’s a stark contrast from my childhood of staying out until 10 or 11 and filling an entire pillowcase with candy.

The Real Issue With Halloween and Trick-or-Treating

Many people are blaming trunk-or-treat events as the doom of trick-or-treating, but I think it’s something else and trunk-or-treat is just a byproduct.

The real issue has been developing for years: we are afraid to let our kids go out alone at night. The constant barrage of child abduction and murder stories in the news has us all scared. I often question if my parents were oblivious, didn’t care about me, or the issue didn’t exist 40 years ago. All my children are teens and I still drive them around on Halloween.

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So, yes, trunk-or-treat events are killing the trick-or-treat vibe but it’s not the events’ fault. The world is scary and we want our kids to get candy safely. Trunk-or-treat events are (sadly) just a necessary byproduct of the world we live in.

I won’t be surprised in a few years if trunk-or-treat is replaced by personal parties with family and friends where everyone brings a bag of candy to share and nobody leaves the house.